Emmy-award winning analyst Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN’s College GameDay joins The Denver Post’s Nick Kosmider to talk about Colorado’s resurgence, Mike MacIntyre’s coach of the year chances and why he’d never leave college to cover the NFL.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News joins Nick Kosmider to discuss why he recently rated Colorado as the No. 2 team in the Pac-12, the health of Christian McCaffrey and a prediction for Saturday’s game.

On this week’s edition of the Field House Podcast, Nick Kosmider talks with Scout.com Arizona State publisher Chris Karpman about Saturday’s first-place matchup between the Buffs and Sun Devils. Or, to accurately summarize the discussion, are there are any quarterbacks left?

Don’t look now, but the Colorado Buffaloes are 3-1. Are they poised to make a run toward a bowl game? Colorado State is led by true freshman quarterback Collin Hill. And can Air Force continue its hot pace? College sports writer Nick Kosmider and Denver Post digital producer Joe Nguyen break these topics down in the inaugural episode of The Field House.

Junior college forward Braden Koelliker signed a National Letter of Intent with the Colorado State Rams men’s basketball team, coach Larry Eustachy announced Tuesday. Koelliker will join the roster next season.

The 6-foot-8 sophomore played at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, last season, averaging 13.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 30 games. He was on a church mission trip the previous two years.

“We are extremely excited to add Braden to our team,” Eustachy said in a news release. “He is only a sophomore who has been on a church mission and is extremely mature for his age. I feel he will make an impact immediately.”

Koelliker graduated from Davis High School in Kaysville, Utah, in 2013. He was an all-state honorable mention his senior year.

With Mike Chambers (lower body injury) on the I.R. a while longer with a lower body injury, I again filled in for him on the DU lacrosse beat Saturday, covering Marquette’s monumental upset of the Pioneers in the Big East Conference tournament championship game.

Colorado State Thursday announced that energy entrepreneur and alumnus Michael Smith has donated $13 million to the school for scholarships and projects, and that $3.5 million of the total is earmarked for the on-campus stadium scheduled to be completed in time for the 2017 football season. More specifically, the Michael & Iris Smith Alumni Center will be in the stadium.

Colorado State quarterback Faton Bauta (5) throws an outlet pass as the pocket breaks down Saturday afternoon April 23, 2016 during the 2016 Green and Gold Spring Game at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins. (Michael Brian, Loveland Reporter-Herald)

Among the people in the not-so-large crowd at Colorado State’s Green vs. Gold spring football game were draft-eligible running back Keith Marshall and Los Angeles Rams back Todd Gurley.

Marshall and Gurley both attended the University of Georgia and played for the Georgia Bulldogs football team. Both played under now Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo and were roommates with now CSU quarterback Faton Bauta. Bauta transferred from Georgia to Colorado State in December. He is now battling the Rams’ Nick Stevens for the starting job. In Saturday’s game, Bauta completed 16-of-29 passes for 203 yards, three scores and an interception.

Marshall had nothing but praise for the quarterback’s work ethic.

“He’s the hardest working human being I’ve ever seen in my life, simple as that,” Marshall said.

Gurley noted that even though Bauta wasn’t a starter, he always came to practice ready to work with a positive attitude.

FORT COLLINS — Ashley Reid is a former Colorado State track star who now is an assistant coach for the Rams.

Her younger sister, Erica Johnson, died in 2013 from the effects of Lupus disease, an autoimmune disorder that kills about 20,000 Americans annually, most of them women.

Since Erica’s death, Ashley annually has led a one-mile walk at the CSU intramural fields to raise awareness and funds for Lupus research and support, and this year’s event will be at 10 a.m., on Sunday, May 1. That’s rain or shine, starting at the softball field adjacent to Moby Arena … or, in the case of inclement weather, in the arena itself.

It suppports the E.R.I.C.A. Lupus Patient Assistance Fund for patients at Poudre Valley Hospital and Medical Center of the Rockies. Participants walk for free in support of the cause, but contributions — by those walking and those supporting them — is encouraged.

Reid was a standout high jumper for the Rams before going into coaching.

To donate online:

1, Go to supportinghealth.org
2. Scroll down and select the amount of your donation.
3. Select “Other” from the Designation drop down menu.
4. In the ‘Other’ box that pops up, type “E.R.I.C.A. Lupus Patient Assistance Fund”
5. Click ‘Add Donation’ (There you should be prompted to insert your information)!

The PVH and MCR Foundation is a 501 (c) 3/509 (a) 1 tax-exempt organization. Their tax ID is 74-1894581.

After the spring game, CSU linebacker Kevin Davis with, from left: Sister Linda, like Kevin a CSU student bi-lingual in English and German; father, Keith, retired army drill instructor and sergeant major; mother Marion, a native of Germany; and girlfriend Kalee Miller.

FORT COLLINS — After the Green and Gold game Saturday at Hughes Stadium, I checked in with the Davis family on the field. My feature on Kevin, the Rams’ standout linebacker and former hockey star on both sides of the Atlantic, was in the Thursday paper and is here.

In addition to what is in the story, this is what CSU coach Mike Bobo said of Faton Bauta, the transfer from Georgia, and holdover starter Nick Stevens: “It was good for (Bauta) to get that many snaps. He hasn’t played that many snaps but one time in the last five years and that was against Florida, which is a pretty good defense. . . And the same thing with Nick. Nick was a first-year starter and he’s going to continue to get better.”

Bobo said of the defense: “The No. 1 defense I thought did a nice job early on. They did a nice job creating some turovers. They got tired a little bit as the day went on. It was the hottest day we’ve had and we’re pretty thin defensively.”

Nick Stevens

Faton Bauta

And here’s the formula used to keep score in the Green (defense) vs. Gold (offense) game:

Borgstrom, a junior star from Finland, is Central Scouting’s ninth-ranked European skater eligible for the upcoming NHL draft. McLellan is the son of Edmonton Oilers coach Todd McLellan and Fear goes 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds.

“These young men are great additions to our program and we’re thrilled they’ve decided to come to Denver,” Montgomery said in a release. “Henrik is a highly-skilled center with great size who is expected to be taken early in this summer’s NHL Draft and will be a strong presence up the middle for us. Erich is a tenacious defender with tremendous physical attributes that we believe will be a great fit on our blue line and has the potential to be a shutdown defenseman in the mold of Josiah Didier (Class of 2015). Tyson is an extremely intelligent forward that will also fit in well with the culture we’ve created here and will be able to play solid, Denver-style hockey right away for us. All three student-athletes add to our impressive depth – both up front and on the back end – and we’re looking forward to having them in Crimson & Gold next season.”

Members of the Texas Tech Red Raiders take the field on the field before the start of their game against the LSU Tigers during the AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl at NRG Stadium on Dec. 29, 2015 in Houston. (Scott Halleran, Getty Images)

The Colorado State football team will play a home-and-home series with Texas Tech, the Rams announced Wednesday.

CSU will host the Red Raiders on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025 and will travel to Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026.

“It is important for our program to build toward the future and face competition that will challenge us and excite our fans,” CSU head coach Mike Bobo said in a news release. “We’re excited to play a game and have a presence in Texas, where we recruit heavily, and to be able to bring a Big 12 program to Fort Collins.”

This is the first Rams football games scheduled beyond the 2021 season. CSU and Texas Tech have played each other twice with the Red Raiders winning in 1968 and 1987.

This stadium will be in its third season of operation with the Toledo Rockets visit in 2019. (Rendering courtesy CSU)

Colorado State Monday announced the scheduling of a home-and-home series with the Toledo Rockets.

The first game will be Sept. 21, 2019 at the Rams’ new on-campus stadium, with the return game at Toledo on Sept. 25, 2021.

The futures nature of the scheduling process and the realities of college sports usually mean that those at the schools when the games are scheduled no longer are around when the games are actually played. But this is what Mike Bobo said in the CSU release: “We’re excited to secure a home-and-home series with Toledo. It’s a program that has been a consistent winner in a tough Mid-American Conference, and played in a bowl game five of the last six seasons. They will present a significant challenge for our football team.”

The 2016 Rams will continue spring practices with drills Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, then conclude them with the Saturday’s 1 p.m. Green and Gold game at Hughes Stadium.

In Fort Collins Tuesday, after visiting the on-campus stadium site (see the next blog entry), I gathered material for the feature on the Rams’ quarterback situation that is here and in the Thursday paper.

Some of this involves the inevitable cycles of college football, with coaches — including CSU coach Bobo, a former college quarterback himself — telling quarterback recruits that’s the way it will be and may the fittest survive, so to speak.

In addition to what’s in the story, here’s what Stevens said about the Bobo staff bringing in transfer Faton Bauta and touted freshman Collin Hill:

— “I don’t think there’s any reason to take it personally. They have their reasons and I think I kind of understand how it works. . . If it makes the team better, it’s best for us.”

— “Having that competition with three guys now is really helpful. It makes us all push a little bit further. Faton does the offense just as well as I do. He’s a playmaker out there. And Collin has shown definitely some really big strides, so he definitely is pushing me and Faton. I think he’s going to be really, really good here one day. He’s grown so much just in the couple of weeks since we’ve started spring ball, and probably has a lot more growth in the offseason, so he’s definitely going to be somebody to watch.”

Former Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick, recently honored again with the transfer of the Sonny Lubick Field designation from Hughes Stadium to the new on-campus facility in 2017, will be the keynote speaker as part of the Rams’ two-day coaching clinic in Fort Collins.

Lubick will speak Friday night after participants attend CSU’s spring practice and then attend a barbecue. His topic: “Building a Program Through Leadership.”

The Buffs’ Sefo Liufau scrambles out of the pocket against the Colorado State Rams during the second half of the Buffs’ 27-24 overtime Rocky Mountain Showdown win. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

Georgia Tech has had a football program since 1892. Colorado has had its since 1890. It’s hard to believe that in the entirety of the teams’ history, the Yellow Jackets and Buffaloes have never faced one another.

That will change as Colorado announced Thursday that the two teams will play a home-and-home series to open the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

“It’s important for us to play games in parts of the country where we can’t get to very often for our alumni bases, and we have a good one in Georgia,” CU athletic director Rick George said in a news release.

The programs are tied together with the 1990 season. Colorado was crowned the Associated Press champion, while Georgia Tech had earned the UPI Coaches title.

“I am sure some fans will use it to settle the bragging rights back to 1990,” George said.

The games add to Colorado’s nonconference home-and-home series schedule against Nebraska (2018-19, 23-24), Minnesota (2021-22), Air Force (2020-22) and Texas A&M (2022-23).

ST. PAUL, Minn — At the NCAA West Regional Saturday, when Ferris State beat St. Cloud State in overtime and Denver routed Boston University, attendance for the single-ticket semifinal doubleheader was announced as 4,926.

There weren’t nearly that “many” around during the second game to see the Pioneers romp. My eyeball estimate was 1,500. The vast majority of even that small official figure was St. Cloud State fans, who — if they came in from the school’s home city — traveled about 75 miles and left after the first game.

With the Huskies out, the DU-Ferris State is being played in front of another intimate gathering, as you can see from the above photo.

I’ve made it a practice to never try to tell anyone how to spend their entertainment dollars, so this is not an indignant rant about how these teams deserve better and the public has let them down, whether that’s taken to mean the Twin Cities hockey constituency or anyone else.

For a short-notice trip, it would have been a 900-mile drive from Denver or an airline ticket, and about a 650-mile trip from Big Rapids, Michigan — the home of Ferris State. (No, me neither … until yesterday.)

The awarding/slotting this regional to St. Paul obviously came with the hope that the University of Minnesota Gophers would make the tournament and could be assigned here.

They didn’t and weren’t.

Even having North Dakota here (instead of Cincinnati) would have led to many fans of the former Fighting Sioux to come to St. Paul.

But this all is fueling the argument that the four separate four-team regionals should be held at campus arenas, at the homes of the No. 1 seeds in each region. Or even that both of the first round and quarterfinals should be played at the home of the higher seed, before feeding into the Frozen Four.

It’s “unfair,” but it makes both economic and, well, artistic sense. It just doesn’t feel right to see games with so much on the line played in front of a crowd that, if you didn’t know better, was settling in 15 minutes before the warmup. Yes, in this case, four-team regionals would have been at St. Cloud State, Quninnipiac (Hamden, Conn.), Providence, and North Dakota (Grand Forks).

Saturday, I asked several Pioneers and DU coach Jim Montgomery if it was hard to play such a big game in front of such a small crowd. The players’ answers were pretty much the same as their coach’s, so I’ll let Montgomery speak for them.

“You know what, no,” he said. “Would you like to have a packed house? Yes. But really when you’re dialed in, your’re focused and you’re committed to each other and there’s an NCAA championship you’re playing for. It doesn’t matter, you could be playing in Siberia.”

Colorado State Rams head coach Mike Bobo has a lot to look forward to in his second year in Fort Collins. The Georgia native has to navigate his team through a transition from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4 defense, a bit of a quarterback controversy as four players will be contending for the starting job, and he’ll have to find a way to replace the team’s top two wide receivers from last season, most notably NFL prospect Rashard Higgins who set career records in receptions, yards and touchdowns.

As the team heads into spring practices, Bobo outlined his plans for the spring season in a press conference Tuesday. He wants the Rams to improve in discipline and mental toughness.

“This year we wanted to focus on the offseason program,” Bobo said. “We wanted to focus on the fourth quarter and trying to establish certain standards of discipline and increase our mental toughness. Increase our toughness where in the fourth quarter when adversity hits, we’re able to function at a high level, which we were able to do some, but we weren’t able to do consistently enough to win those close games.”Read more…

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.